Welcome back! Now, while Ana’s talk is fantastic and inspiring, it’s also a ton of information, with a lot of moving parts, so luckily our panel of geniuses is here to help you if you’re interested in starting to track or investigate behavior research. Here’s a few take-aways from the panel:

Scott Moore suggests that as a first step, if you’re going to dive into this world, you should learn how to understand research, to minimize the misinterpretation errors. He offers three URL’s to help with this, that you can find here: How to read a Research Paper.

Jono Bacon gives two excellent suggestions on reading material to get you on the right path to investigating these behaviors in your community:

Fair warning, these are heady books to get into, so he suggests lots of coffee.

Randy Farmer also suggests Predictably Irrational, but also recommends Building Successful Online Communities by Robert E. Kraut. Another key piece of advice he shares is that the self selection process that happens in communities can over-optimize your products and your community and force you down a one size fits all path.

Jennifer Sable Lopez makes a great point about how keeping the consistency of moderation team behavior will keep the community growing and feeling safe. As a moderation team can remove flaming posts and abuse, those people that need the help a community can provide know that they have the ability to look foolish or silly, without fearing the results. This leads to more engagement, and a more vibrant community for both the moderators and the members

What this all comes down to, is that I can’t reliably write a blog post that summarizes all this excellent information in anything less than 1,000 words. There are so many good suggestions, tips, and deep dive advice that you really owe it to yourself to watch, and use this as a cheat sheet for some of the recommendations. MyCMGR went above and beyond this week, with a panel that could easily talk for hours about this subject, and really demonstrates how deep the rabbit hole goes. I highly suggest you carve out an hour and 20 minutes of your time this week, and watch both these videos.

With that, I’m going to say adieu for this week, and we’ll see you here, as always, on Fridays at 2EST for the next episode of Community Managers Managing – The Days of Our Lives.

P.S. Speaking of our geniuses, can I give a massive internet high-five to the 5 bearded gents on the panel this week? As a fellow Community nerd, with a fantastic beard, I’m feeling the love.

Patrick Hellen is a large collection of adjectives, in the shape of a lanky, bearded, and bespectacled fellow. He's been a lumberjack, a restaurant writer, a published author, a sales guy, a book seller, a church janitor, a tour guide, and most recently, a community manager and a Dad. He reads nearly constantly, tells loud boisterous stories for as many people as will listen, eats food like it's his last day on earth, and still collects comic books and video games. Until he decides to sit down and write another book, you'll have to find his inane ramblings on Twitter at @PatrickCH.